A look back: June 19–21, 2018

Tuesday, June 19:  Due to my very late bedtime and a poor night's sleep due to the jaw pain, I slept in and reported to work sometime after 9:00 (or maybe it was 9:30).  The pain continued to worsen and I left work early.  I decided if it didn't improve soon, I would be heading to the doctor's office.

At this point at work, we were dealing with a lot of looming deadlines and my upcoming vacation, so I really didn't want to miss time.  But...it's hard to work when you're in pain.

Jennifer and I began discussing potential travel plans to Ohio.

Wednesday, June 20:  No improvement, so I went to the doctor's office.  I did not see a doctor, however; I got a nurse practitioner.  (I will not name her here, aside from the pseudonym "Nurse K.")  After a cursory examination, Nurse K. declined to prescribe any medication and suggested—quite seriously—that I buy some sour candy and suck on it, as that could probably help.  So I tried dealing with my pain by sucking on lemon drops.  Predictably, it didn't work.  Although I made it to work closer to the starting time that day, I again left work early and wallowed in my misery at home.

Thursday, June 21:  The pain was even worse, so I took a sick day.

The original vacation plans we had that year were to allow our son to spend the week from 6/23 to 6/30 with my parents in Pennsylvania.  We would travel to PA on 6/30, spend a few days there, take our son and head to OH, spend a few more days there, and then come home.  We would drop off our second daughter at Camp Peniel, where she would be working for two weeks, on that trip home.  By this time, we realized getting our son to Pennsylvania was unlikely and we canceled that aspect of the trip.

At this point we were leaning toward Jennifer taking time off from work and taking at least some of the kids with her to her parents' home, leaving most likely on Monday, 6/25.  But for reasons already in place, Daughter #2 needed to take her driver's license test before she left town.

And I was leaning toward calling the doctor's office first thing in the morning if improvement didn't occur.